Navigate:

Greens, automakers hail greenhouse gas ruling

EPA supporters hailed the scope and tenor of the ruling. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

“Automakers are already producing almost 300 highly fuel-efficient models, so we have made a huge investment in technologies and want to sell these models in high numbers,” the automakers said. The Obama administration worked with the auto industry, environmentalists, states and the Transportation Department when setting its greenhouse gas emissions limits for cars, which align with DOT fuel-efficiency standards.

But the National Association of Manufacturers said the ruling will result in lost jobs and that the group “will consider further legal options on appeal.”

Text Size

-

+

reset

“Today’s ruling is a setback for businesses facing damaging regulations from the EPA,” manufacturers association president and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement. He added: “The EPA’s decision to move forward with these regulations is one of the most costly, complex and burdensome regulations facing manufacturers. These regulations will harm their ability to hire, invest and grow. By moving forward, the EPA is adding to the mounting uncertainty facing manufacturers of all sizes.”

Climate skeptic Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) lamented: “This ‘big win’ for the Obama EPA is a huge loss for every American, especially those in the heartland states which rely on fossil fuel development and the affordable energy that comes with it.”

Among other aspects of the complex case — Coalition for Responsible Regulations v. EPA — the court ruled that all of the EPA’s challengers “fall far short” of having legal standing to challenge the agency’s attempt to minimize the burden of complying with the greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA issued a “tailoring rule” meant to limit the greenhouse gas regulations’ scope, arguing that it would otherwise take an impractically huge number of employees to regulate GHGs from millions of sources. “Indeed, the Timing and Tailoring Rules actually mitigate Petitioners’ purported injuries,” the court said.

Most insiders didn’t expect the court to wholly dismiss the so-called endangerment finding on greenhouse gases — the judges seemed convinced in oral arguments that the agency was relying on a strong precedent from the Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling that the Clean Air Act could apply to greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles.

But many of the regulations that followed could have been on shakier legal ground, and several observers said the appellate court would at the very least ask the agency to tweak its approach.

Instead, it upheld them all.

The court also lent strong support to the EPA’s interpretation of climate change science, saying it had a “substantial record of evidence” that greenhouse gases very likely cause climate change and that “extreme weather events, changes in air quality, increases in food- and water-borne pathogens, and increases in temperatures are likely to have adverse health effects.” The judges also said the record of the case supports the “EPA’s conclusion that climate change endangers human welfare by creating risk to food production and agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, ecosystems, and wildlife,” as well as risks to water and coastal resources.

All Americans support ending all this government regulation nonsense. On Day 1, Mitt will close the EPA, FDA, FAA...

On Day 1 we can end all these democrat socialist programs like Socialism Security, Mediscam, and so called unemployment “benefits”. No more poor and middle class entitlements (HANDOUTS!). Join with Mitt and our Tea Party Patriots and DEMAND additional tax cuts for the Job Creator class, let’s get help to those who so desperately need it.

Expect more emotional wailing and hysterical gnashing of teeth from the conservative collective as they realize that they have been stopped from dancing to their puppet master's (international corporate money) tune.

Watch the conservative despair as they blubber and snivel because they are unable to pollute the air for profit.

Yes, this will be another very emotional day for conservatives who have been impeded in their effort to fatten their wallets by destroying the environment.

Yes, this will be another very emotional day for conservatives who have been impeded in their effort to fatten their wallets by destroying the environment.

Its a tough day when a fanatic like Lisa Jackson continues her Jihad against the private sector economy. Lets be honest, the fanatics at the EPA hate the private sector and use regulation to destroy it.

Its a tough day when a fanatic like Lisa Jackson continues her Jihad against the private sector economy. Lets be honest, the fanatics at the EPA hate the private sector and use regulation to destroy it.

Thank you for confirming that I am correct.

Expect more emotional wailing and hysterical gnashing of teeth from the conservative collective

Actually Skippy, regulators don't need to be elected in our system. Also, please furnish with proof any instance you've seen where this president has knowingly violated the law.

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that for members of the Kindergarten Club of North America just saying something makes it true. Apologies for taxing your brain beyond the level of a five year old. Feel free to go back to rolling your poop into little balls and throwing it at the adults in the room.

There can't be a bigger coward or wimp then Mitt Romney the draft dodger! Protested against the war protesters and then ran to France!

Two Famous Quotes By Romney The Draft Dodger!

" War Vets Should Be Taught How to Milk Cows " Then-Senate candidate Mitt Romney responding to a homeless veterans' shelter director's complaint that state aid wasn't enough to afford milk for the men. " My sons serve the country by helping me get elected "

Romney the draft dodgers Vietnam Flip Flop!

Mitt Romney, 1994: “It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam”. 2007: “I longed… to actually be in Vietnam.”

Its not who is for big business as in republicans or not as in democrats. Its always been about who gains the edge in telling others how to live and what to do. The left is incensed with anyone that doesn't agree with or wish to do their bidding. Plain and simple. A free country is not based on rules set up by one faction to control another but that is who the left are.

Most of the world is onto the scam. Lisa Jackson at EPA runs a corrupt cabal & belongs in prison.

Wow........evidently you missed the bottom line or objective of the EPA...that is to protect human life....to protect the environment which is essential to the survival of human beings....and to protect human from corporations that would promote greed/profit over human safety.

You and other Repubs/Tea Party people really need to read Business Roundtable’s 2012 Sustainability Report — Create, Grow, Sustain — now in its fifth year, features narratives from 126 CEOs on how their companies are leading the way with solutions to make the U.S. economy more sustainable while also driving economic growth and job creation. From sustainable supply chain and water management to energy efficiency and the use of cutting-edge technology, sustainable business practices are ingrained into the fabric of each featured company’s business practices. America’s CEOs are committed to addressing sustainability in innovative ways to help create jobs, grow the U.S. economy, and sustain and enhance the quality of life on our planet for generations to come.

These top US corporations.companies are working within EPA rules and regulations and still profits to stockholders are approximately 163 billion and combined chairtable contributions of over 9 billion per year.

There are also goups like the American Petroleum Institute, which had lobbied to weaken the proposed rule, said the revised standards issued Wednesday were an improvement over the original proposal. Howard Feldman, the institute’s director of regulatory and scientific affairs, said the industry had already adopted many of the requirements of the new rule and welcomed the delay in its effective date.

“The industry has led efforts to reduce emissions by developing new technologies that were adopted in the rule,” Mr. Feldman said. “E.P.A. has made some improvement in the rules that allow our companies to continue reducing emissions while producing the oil and natural gas our country needs.”